Washington (CNN) - House Republican Leader John Boehner said Wednesday that he plans to continue to fly commercial airplanes to and from his Ohio home even after he becomes House speaker in January–a change from Speaker Pelosi's current use of military planes.

"I have talked to our security folks about the security that's involved in my new role. But over the last 20 years I have flown back and forth to my district on a commercial aircraft and I am going to continue to do that," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill.FULL POST

(CNN) – Time heals all wounds, the saying goes, but perhaps not when it comes to rehabilitating former president George W. Bush's poll numbers.

According to a new Gallup survey, the 43rd president's favorability rating has hardly seen an uptick since January 2009. Bush's favorables now stand at 44 percent – 4 points higher than it was two years ago, but within the polls sampling error. Fifty-three percent of Americans meanwhile continue to view the president unfavorably.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - After just eighteen months at the helm, South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd will announce Wednesday that she is not seeking a second term, GOP sources tell CNN.

With a national Republican tailwind at her back, Floyd presided over a overwhelmingly successful election cycle, helping the party gain control of all Constitutional offices along with five of six Congressional seats for the first time since Reconstruction.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - As a battle looms between Democrats and Republicans in the lameduck Congress over extending Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, a new survey suggests that two parties don't see eye to eye over the art of compromise.

According to a new Gallup poll, 59 percent of Democrats say it is generally more important for political leaders to compromise to get things, with 18 percent saying it is more important to stick to your beliefs. But 41 percent of Republicans questioned in the survey say it is more important for lawmakers to stick to their beliefs even if little gets done, with 32 percent saying compromise is more important.FULL POST

(CNN) – A new poll indicates that New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie might be on to something with his decision last month to slash funding for the nation's largest infrastructure project- the building of a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York.

A Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday found that New Jersey voters agreed with Christie's decision to eliminate the project by a 53 to 37 percent margin.FULL POST

(CNN) -George Bush's memoir only hit bookshelves Tuesday, but already one prominent ex-world leader says the former president isn't being truthful when it comes to his description of a 2002 conversation about the possible use of force in Iraq.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who left office in 2005, is disputing a passage in Bush's new book that claims Schroeder privately offered the president full-fledged support in 2002 should he decide to invade Iraq.FULL POST

CNN: Divided Democrats look ahead through 2012
One week removed from the great "shellacking" of 2010, Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are still picking through the ashes of their lost House majority and debating the best way forward. Rumors of their demise are, of course, exaggerated. Republicans survived midterm massacres in 1974 and 2006; Democrats lived to tell the tale of 1994. Election night exit polls showed the GOP is no more popular among voters than the Democrats. But any time a party loses at least 60 seats in the House and six in the Senate, recriminations are bound to fly. Angry liberals accuse the White House of selling them out on a range of issues - public option anyone? - and demoralizing the base. Diminished Blue Dogs point the finger at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's dismal approval ratings and complain about being saddled with unpopular stimulus and cap-and-trade plans, among other things.